SHE’S GOT THE LOOKS THAT KILL

Good morning, Internet.

I thought I’d help you through Monday with some bonus Angie Dickinson, but I never really liked Police Woman. But I do like Lee Marvin, so I thought I’d give you both of them interpreting Ernest Hemingway.

Then I thought, “What if they prefer the Ava Gardner/Burt Lancaster interpretation?”

Then I thought, “Dumb guy! Give them both!”

 

And here we are.

Choice of weapons,

This is dF

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR WOLVERINE

So I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine this weekend.

How was it, you ask?

Watch this 30-second summary and see for yrself.

Okay, there was a little more to it than that.

But not much more.

As superhero action films go, it’s all right – some nifty fight scenes, Hugh Jackman doing what he does best, etc. As a prequel that ties itself to the first X-Men film, it’s pretty clumsy. And as a Secret Origins story, well, let’s just say that some characters are more appealing when you preserve the mystery. (That said, the same could be true for the comics version as well.)

All up, it’s entertaining but hardly essential.

Also, note to movie producers: please STOP doing die-in-my-arms scenes where the grieving hero looks up to the overhead camera and screams “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” as it zooms out. You are only making us snigger.

Make me wanna holler,

This is dF

ABSTINENCE-ONLY SEX EDUCATION FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

ITEM: One overlooked but interesting item from Obama’s 2010 budget: funding for various abstinence-only sex education has been chopped in favor of  more comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programs.

Which is worth mentioning for the skull-exploding hilarity of watching conservatives freak out and blast Obama for placing ideology over science.

Like so:

“The president's budget ignores research that documents a 50% decrease in sexual onset among teens that are enrolled in abstinence programs,” says Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association.

"Not one school based Comprehensive Sex Education program has demonstrated compelling evidence of decreasing STDs or teen pregnancy, nor of increasing consistent condom usage among students for a meaningful time period,” states Dr. Stan Weed, noted expert on sex education and president of The Institute for Research and Evaluation.

Granted, Dr Weed is a Mormon who runs the Institute for Research and Evaluation out of his home, and has only one peer-reviewed and published study (out of something like 20+ years of experience) showing abstinence-only-until-marriage programs can have a modest impact among seventh graders in delaying sex.

But hey, science is science. Just ask academic publishing company Elsevier, which published at least six advertorial magazines disguised as peer-reviewed science journals at the behest of pharmaceutical companies like Merck who wanted to be able to put stuff in their product marketing literature like, "As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications..."

I mean, so what if the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine is funded by Merck to promote Merck products? Doesn’t mean the science in it isn’t true. Right?

And c’mon, when it comes to proven ways to prevent teen pregnancies, who are you going to believe – Dr Weed, or biased ultra-liberal activist groups like the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the American College Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the British Medical Journal (all of whom state that abstinence-only programs don’t work)?

Oh well. Luckily for pro-abstinence advocates, there’s always Iron Hymen. And, er, Bristol Palin, who’s now pushing abstinence for the Candies Foundation. Which is funny, considering who Candie’s other spokesperson is.

That should go well.

Blinded by pseudoscience,

This is dF